LinkedIn may seem intimidating or even a little confusing. As a business owner, you are wondering if you really need it or any other platform for that matter. With LinkedIn you are able to connect with customers, business associates, and other important people all in one place.

The True Benefits Of LinkedIn

Unlike sites like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is meant for people to connect in a professional setting. They make it easy to find and communicate with the people that matter to you most.

On the flip side of things, your customers are able to connect with you too. They can discover who you are and what the message of your business is. They can even learn about you personally and your background. This is fantastic, as it humanizes your business and makes your customers more comfortable.

It also gives you the opportunity to explore your competition. Never before have you been able to research an entire industry and see who is really dominating. You have the ability to go in and see what companies are doing right and what companies are doing wrong. Then you can make adjustments in your own business. It’s a brand new and affordable form of competitor analysis.

How To Get The Most Out Of LinkedIn

Creative Commons image courtesy of Shekhar_Sahu

It’s clear that LinkedIn is a powerful tool. But you may be wondering how exactly to get all these benefits. Luckily, LinkedIn is very user friendly. By following these few simple things you can use LinkedIn to its fullest potential.

The first thing to do after creating an account is to do some searches. It’s important to make these searches as specific as possible. Make sure you specify the location, industry, skills, and other pertinent information. This will be the easiest way to find both your customers and your competition.

After identifying potential customers and business associates, you are going to want to connect with them. The number one factor to use LinkedIn effectively is to stay active. Send out messages, join groups, and participate in conversations. Stay engaged and keep your conversations flowing.

By staying active you are connecting with countless people in your industry and building a great deal of awareness. There is also a section on LinkedIn under the “More” tab called “Questions” which allows you to answer other peoples questions. Everyone wants to dominate their industry and by answering these questions, you are doing just that.

Find the people you are looking for whether they are your competition or your customers. Keep engaging and keep talking. Build and nurture relationships. Use LinkedIn as your go-to social media platform and conquer your industry one connection at a time.

Guest author Kevin Greene works for a company that helps clients with their PS3 problems (this site has more information). Because they have such a narrow, unique niche, they’ve had to find creative ways to reach potential clients.

I got an invite this morning to request to join the new LinkedIn profile the social network is launching shortly. Well, actually what I received was a request for me to request an invite for the new LinkedIn profile. Sounded better the first way. Anyways, this is a walk-through of what the new LinkedIn profile will look like in upcoming weeks.

New LinkedIn Profile Walk-Through

New LinkedIn Profile In Beta

From what I saw here were the three biggest changes to the new LinkedIn profile:

1. They are stepping up the activity section of the profile by making it more prominent. LinkedIn has been moving in that direction for a few months now, and this looks like the next step in a social network determined to be more than a social networking resume.

2. Added stats will help users understand how they have grown their network in the past. Analyzing where their new connections find them will help everyone understand how to create duplicate connections in the future.

3. Connect with your social network is easier than ever on LinkedIn. They added what reminds me of a Facebook Fan Page list of faces to peruse. You can scroll over the faces to connect with different people in your social network.

Also, while this was not a change in the new LinkedIn profile I really like how people can vote on your skills and expertise. This feature was installed about a month ago. A good move, because it is easier to do versus recommendation letters, so more people vote yes on someone’s skill set.

I think the new changes are pretty good from what they showed in the preview. The changes are also, not life-altering in what they added. A few tweaks here and there to pretty the site up for users. What do you think of the new LinkedIn profile?